The doo-doos and don'ts! Doctor explains why you should never use your phone on the toilet
Dr Primrose Freestone, professor of clinical microbiology at the University Of Leicester, England, says fecal bacteria can easily reach your phone in the bathroom.
This includes E Coli, which can result in nasty diarrhea and stomach cramps, and Pseudomonas, which causes infections in the blood and lungs.
Even after you've washed your hands with soap, these bugs can travel back to your hands once you touch your phone again.
As a result, phones should be kept out of the toilet altogether, and regularly sanitized with alcohol wipes.
The expert told DailyMail.com: 'The phone will at some point get contaminated, so periodically disinfecting your phone is a good idea.
'My Nokia gets a disinfectant wipe over twice a week.'
When we flush a toilet, tiny liquid droplets containing bacteria and fecal matter - invisible to the naked eye - is violently ejected.
According to prior research at the University Of Colorado Boulder, this so-called 'toilet plume' can travel 5ft in eight seconds.
Therefore, anything that is within 5ft of the toilet bowl can become contaminated, whether it's the floor, the wall or a nearby book.
Research also suggests that this plume still escapes when we've got the toilet lid closed.
As a result, Professor Freestone urges people to keep their phones well away from the toilet, or even better, out of the bathroom entirely.
She told DailyMail.com: 'Toilet areas adjacent to toilets, because of the toilet spray trajectory, are pretty contaminated.
'It does not matter where you go, there will be fecal bacteria on lots of [bathroom] surfaces.
'So soaps and taps, toilet and wash basin surfaces, door handles, bath mats – the list is long.'
If you're holding your phone while you empty you bowels, putting it on the floor before flushing is one of the worst things you can do.
That's because fecal matter whizzes out of the toilet upon flushing and eventually settles onto the floor.
Professor Freestone said: 'The floor around the toilet will - if not disinfected regularly - have traces of feces with lots gut bacteria, which will stay alive for hours and days.
'So I would not put your phone on the floor next to the toilet as it is likely to pick up the feces and the bacteria associated with the waste product.'
Even if you put your phone on another nearby surface, such as the cistern or the nearby windowsill, it could risk contamination too.
Professor Freestone acknowledges it can be hard to be separated from your phone, even for the relatively short time it takes to use the toilet.
In extreme instances - such as not wanting to miss a very important phone call, for example - she suggests keeping it in your pocket for the whole time.
Even though we may not appreciate it, phones are high-touch items particularly at risk of bacterial contamination just like doorknobs, light switches and taps.
Therefore, we should be washing our hands much more often before or after touching them, while also keeping them sanitized, she added.
Using a 70 per cent alcohol wipe or a mild soap and water mixture are good options, but don't submerge it if it's not waterproof, or use harsh chemicals like bleach.
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